According to an airparif study, road traffic is the main source of emission – with wood heating in winter – these unregulated particles despite their dangerousness.
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Some Parisians may find a new reason to leave the capital to get green: the Francilians who live in town are much more exposed to ultrafine particles than those who live in the countryside. This is the main teaching of the first field study devoted by AirParif to the issue of ultrafine particles (PUF) and published Tuesday 1 February.
The PUFs, also called nanoparticles, measure less than 100 nanometers (NM) in diameter, barely the size of a virus or just a DNA molecule for the smallest of them. It is their infinitesimal size that makes them particularly dangerous. Unlike the coarse particles (PM10, less than 10 micrometers, μm) which remain blocked at the upper respiratory tract (nose and pharynx) or fine particles (PM2.5, less than 2.5 μm) which stop. Pulmonary alveoli, PUF penetrate the blood system and can reach the brain and cross the placenta of pregnant women.
Among the best documented deleterious effects in the scientific literature: respiratory diseases (lung cancer asthma), cardiovascular disease (myocardial infarction or stroke) and premature deaths. This pollutant says “Emerging” is the subject of increasing health worries and recommendations for strengthening its monitoring both internationally (World Health Organization) and National (National Sanitary Safety Agency). Yet, unlike PM10 and PM2.5, they are still not regulated and are not regularly monitored.
peaks during the coldest periods
For this first study, AirParif, the Air Quality Monitoring Organization in Ile-de-France, sought to measure PUF pollution levels in different Francilian environments: in urban residential areas and in Rural area, each time in a situation called “substantive pollution”, that is to say remote from a source of pollution such as the device. The measurement campaign was conducted for three months in winter (between December 2020 and February 2021) to distinguish the share of heating and road traffic into PUF emissions. Four sites were selected: three in urban areas (a site in the heart of Paris in the Garden of Halles, two in the peri-urban area in Gennevilliers and Tremblay-en-France) and one in rural areas (wood-Herpin, in the Beauce) .
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